Digital Soul

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

I suck big at two things. Carrom and computer games. But the latter is going to be the downfall for me if things turn out as Wired predicts. And I fully agree. It is evident from the popularity of online MMOG's. For the uninitiated, its a way of online life. For the non-gamers, its a something like your mail id, an identity. The difference is that the games actully use your actions to create the profile. So if you kill someone in the online world, it notes that and marks that in your profile. It keeps track of your likes and dislikes. It maintains a history of your online behaviour. Its your digitally created soul.

A generation of kids, from Korea to India, are actively playing these games. Go to any Reliance WebWorld cafe and you'll be surprised by the number of kids on it. For them its a way of life. As this generation grows up and enters the workforce, they will have a online digital identity which will be as valuable as their real world identity. The networks they make in the real world will be augumented by the networks made virtually. People like us who are not into online gaming will be outcasts.

But Google God is coming to the rescue of such people. Google stated goal is to organize the world information. And it includes personal information as well. Every search that is made on Google is archived in Google's database. Every AdSense ad clicked is noted down. The search history is maintianed and linked to your Google Account. And it contributes to your profile. The aim there is to maximize the probabality of you clicking an AdSense ad as it comes up in the GMail page or the search results page. So as to generate as much as possible revenues from them.

There are several other databases of which maintain profiles on behaviours. Sony, Nintendo and recently Microsoft either have or will create thier own systems. As generations grow up with gaming consoles, the online profile's applicablity will increase. One day these systems will be interconnected to each other as well. When that happens, the digital soul will be as important as the real world counterpart.

So jump on to the gaming bandwagon as soon as possible. Or lose out on natural selection.